6/18/7  New faces, new ideas!

Now, we can all get back to normalcy.  No more TV ads!  No more campaign mailers!  No more political phone calls!  Well, at least for a few months.

Obviously, I am very pleased that Tom Leppert will be our new mayor.  He's just what the doctor ordered to help us unify this city.  If you were at his election watch party, you saw the most incredible mix of people hugging and visiting with each other.  Democrats, Republicans, all ethnic groups, elected officials, political activists, straights, gays -- you name it.  Tom was right in the middle of all us from the beginning of the party until his acceptance statement.

My husband and I took one of my poll workers with us to Tom's watch party at Gilly's after turning in my precinct stuff to the North Dallas Government Center.  Yeah, I'm the Election Judge in my precinct.  On the way, I was punching radio buttons trying to get early vote return numbers.  Finally, punched one station just as they were finishing, but too late to hear the numbers.  So, I called one of my really smart friends who lives and breaths this stuff to get the results.  When she said 60-40 in the early voting, I almost ran off the road.

Friday morning before the election, I was optimistic of a Leppert victory with an undercurrent of nervous worry.  Ed had been no-showing several scheduled radio debates during the week.  His campaign staff put out the word that he was so far ahead in the polls he didn't need to go on the radio anymore.  I asked someone in the Leppert campaign if that claim was valid.  I won't repeat the response, but it was short, sweet and succinct.  Still, I was edgy.  On the way home from work, I tried to find a talk station addressing the election rather than national stuff.  KLIF/570 was replaying a morning debate between Ed and Tom.  Ed was extremely testy and interruptive.  Tom was cool and collected.  At that point, I stopped worrying.  Ed did not sound like a confident candidate with high poll numbers.  He sounded frustrated and angry.

Back to the Leppert watch party.  When we walked in, Tom was milling with the crowd, shaking hands, hugging, kissing cheeks, posing for pictures.  Just a happy guy, smoozing with his friends and supporters.  I was impressed that the party was so casual, and the candidate was in a jacket sans tie.  We were not in some big hotel ball room, but a side room of a honky tonk.  Mayor Miller held her watch parties at Eddie Dean's, but it was a huge room with lots more people.  The Gilly's party was absolutely not what you would expect from a Citizens Council guy.  She may have come later, but I did not see Donna Halstead, the CC's director.  Didn't see many suits at all, just a fun crowd.

When you run a precinct election, you have to be there at 6 to set up all the stuff in time for the polls to open at 7.  When you have a bunch of critters to feed and walk before you leave your house, 4:30 is the time the alarm goes off.  By 10 pm, no matter how much fun you are having, the adrenalin is just not enough to keep you going.  I wanted to go congratulate Dave Neumann, but the three of us were weary and partied out.

Even though we didn't get over to Oak Cliff, I am very excited about Dave Neumann's victory in District 3.  What a campaign he ran!  With his opponent doing the same partisan stuff as Ed, calling Dave a Republican in a district with a large Democrat base, Dave had an uphill fight to keep his message positive, but he did.

Look at the people endorsing him in the group shot above - former councilman Mark Housewright, former County Treasurer Lisa Hembry, County Commissioner Price, County Commissioner Mayfield, former Councilmen Ricardo Medrano and Dr. Charles Tandy.  Talk about an eclectic assortment of endorsements!

I have only known Dave since he took over the Stemmons Business Corridor Association.  He's the first SBCA leader who NW Dallas community leaders have been able to get to even acknowledge our problem with sexually oriented business saturating our mutual area.  He not only acknowledged the problem, he has been proactive in helping us reduce the number of "men's clubs" and massage parlor/bath houses.  He's so high energy. 

On this month's Board of Adjustment meeting day, we were having lunch before our hearing, and the election came up.  We talked about the mayor's race and the council runoffs.  When we got to District 3, I mentioned how helpful Dave had been to Northwest Dallas and how he radiates energy and positivism.   Another board member said Dave previously served on our panel, and that's how he had been as a board member, too.  Dave will hit the ground running on the council.  He will be an immediate leader.

I am devastated that Betty Culbreath did not win District 5.  There were horrible robocalls done against her by the John Wiley Price gang.  She would have been great on the council.  She will continue as head of the DHA, at least through 2008, so don't expect Betty Culbreath to go away quietly into the sunset.  She's never going to retire from community service.

Tennell Atkins will be another good addition to the council.  He and Dwaine Caraway had their differences in the past, but they put those aside years ago to work for the betterment of South Dallas.  Both Councilman James Fantroy and former Councilman Al Lipscomb endorsed Tennell Atkins for District 8.  That speaks volumes about Tennell's ability to form coalitions.

Here's the new council (yellow) vs DallasArena.com and DMN endorsements:

Dist	DallasArena	DMN	Winner	Candidate
1				Dr. Elba Garcia - Incumbent - Unopposed
2				Pauline Medrano - Incumbent - She has been more responsive to her constituents than her predecessor. 1 opponent.
3				Dave Neumann - Community Leader; City Plan Commission; President, Stemmons Corridor Business Assn. 9 opponents, general
				Joseph Hernandez -
4				Dwaine Caraway - Former Chair Park Board, instrumental in closing "hot sheet" motels in Southern Sector.  3 opponents
				Eugene Thomas
5				Betty Culbreath - Past Chair DFW Board & City Plan Commission (twice); Current Chair Dallas Housing Authority
				Vonciel Hill - former Municipal Judge who was not reappointed by city council in 2004, backed by JW Price 6 opponents, general
6				Steve Salazar - Incumbent, unopposed.  Councilman has been very responsive to and effective for his constituents.
7				Donald R. Parish, Sr. - Pastor of the True Lee Missionary Baptist Church; Rev Parish is a Viet Nam vet (Army, Sgt), former AT&T supervisor (18 years until retirement).  He has a commitment to South Dallas.
				Carolyn Davis
8				Tennell Atkins - Dallas businessman, endorsed by Councilman Fantroy 4 opponents, general; Charles Rose in runoff
9				Albert Turner -
				Sheffie Kadane - Park Board member 3 opponents - no runoff
10				Jerry Allen - DART Board member - no other candidate
11				Linda Koop - incumbent, unopposed
12				Ron Natinsky - incumbent, Big Ticket Guy -- big disappointment
				John McClelland - not Ron Natinsky
13				Mitch Rasanksy - incumbent, unopposed
14				Angela Hunt - incumbent.  Incredible courage, independence on council.  Leading TrinityVote. 1 opponent

DallasArena.com actually did better in our recommendations than The Dallas Managed News.  Originally, DMN co-endorsed Neumann and Hernandez in District 3, then endorsed Hernandez in the runoff - our guy won.  DallasArena.com endorsed Dwaine Caraway in District 4 and he beat opponents with 60% of the vote WITHOUT a runoff - our guy won.  DallasArena.com endorsed Culbreath, DMN made no endorsements in District 5, but Vonciel Hill won runoff.  DallasArena.com made token endorsements in Districts 9 and 12, DMN  endorsements won.  We agreed on Pauline Medrano, Tennell Atkins and Angela Hunt. 

There may be a fight for Mayor Pro Tem between Elba Garcia and Steve Salazar, but I expect Dwaine Caraway will be Deputy Mayor Pro Tem with his decisive win in the general election in May and hard campaigning for Mayor-Elect Leppert.

Mitch Rasansky is a big winner in Saturday's mayoral runoff.  He was dead meat if Ed Oakley had won, even before Mitch endorsed and began campaigning for Tom Leppert in his vote-rich District 13.  The numbers for Mayor-Elect Leppert from District 13 are huge.  Oakley and Rasansky were polar opposites on most tax abatements that were given the past couple of years.  The controversy over Jack Pierce (Hollywood Overhead Doors) almost losing the zoning on his land due to an attempted land grab by Bill Blaydes with Oakley's assistance was the direct result of Mitch Rasansky reading the zoning agenda carefully and catching that planned miscarriage of justice.  That event and the resulting bad press was not the only reason Ed lost, but it certainly was a major factor.  Jack Pierce's radio ad was dynomite.

All in all, Tom Leppert was a very good candidate.  He seemed indefatigable, always calm, pleasant and smart.  If you saw him exhibit anger, I missed it.  He just refused to take Ed's negative bait. 

I don't know of any returning or newly elected council members who supported Ed.  Besides Mitch Rasansky, a couple of incumbents worked behind the scene to support Tom.  Several city staff told me they themselves were calling everyone they knew to get them to vote against Ed.  That surprised me.  During the campaign, Ed talked about his his ability to build coalitions.  City staffers tell me he made deals but did not keep his word after getting what he wanted.  Guess that's why Ray Hunt connected with Ed.

Some big losers in the mayoral race are John Wiley Price, Ray Hunt, Lucy Crow Billingsley and Harlan Crow.  They backed the wrong horse and were very unpleasant about it.  The ads JWP did on Black radio stations were insulting to the intelligence of African-American voters.  Lucy Billingsley looked particularly opportunistic with her and her husband's $10,000 contribution to Tom Leppert the day before throwing a fundraiser in her Park Cities mansion for Ed, followed by her comments in a related DMN story. 

Looks like that Son of a Bigamist Billionaire Ray Hunt and all his horses (John Scovell, Jean Johnson Phillips, et al) could not put Ed Oakley into the Mayor's seat on the horseshoe.  With Ed backing Joe Hernandez against Dave Neumann, he has some serious fence mending at City Hall if he wants to stay involved in city matters.

Another thing Saturday's results showed -- Dallas voters do not want our council or mayoral races to be partisan.  South Dallas and Oak Cliff's District 3 rejected party labels.  Tom Leppert may not have won many precincts in the Southern Sector, but a review of them individually shows he held his own in most precincts.  Outside of Oak Lawn, Ed did nothing in North Dallas.  He had some big precincts in Oak Lawn, but the few precincts he won in North Dallas had few total voters.  Tom took several precincts by large margins where over 600 people voted.  Ed using partisan politics backfired on him in North Dallas.

Now -- let's get those VoteTrinity petitions signed.

sb